


I've been ghosting (I've been ghosting along)

by monsterenergydrink (Overly_Obsessive_Band_Geek)



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Character Study, Dream Smp, Gen, I allude to the karl/quackity/sapnap relationship, Introspection, Mentioned Alexis | Quackity, Reincarnation, Tales From The SMP, The Village That Went Mad, he doesn't know what he is or why he's here either, i guess, inspired by Tales from the SMP, more like unknowledgeable narrator, nebulously immortal and non human karl, no beta we die like wilbur soot, not unreliable narrator, possible god!Karl, that but it's Karl, the no capitalization is intentional, you know how people write Dream as the lone god of the dsmp?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 07:00:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28524363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Overly_Obsessive_Band_Geek/pseuds/monsterenergydrink
Summary: a non canon study on c!Karl, and the possibility that he's more than he looks to be. why does he know all of these things about the past? because he was there.inspired by Tales from the SMP: The Village that Went Mad
Comments: 3
Kudos: 51





	I've been ghosting (I've been ghosting along)

**Author's Note:**

> as always, this is about the character Karl plays on the Dream SMP, not the real life content creator and if he expresses any discomfort with this type of fanfic it'll be removed from the site. 
> 
> title from Ghosting by Mother Mother

Karl’s name wasn’t always Karl. it's been many different things, over the years. none of them changed his role, his function- to be an observer, to watch and record and remember and never, never let them know. he cannot leave, and so he watches. he watches countries rise and fall, watches the same thing happen over and over again because people never really change.

even watching the same story repeat on loop, it takes him time to realize. takes him time to realize he isn';t just watching the same story repeat, but that he’s watching the same people repeat it each time. he knows they don’t know, but once he sees it, he can always tell who is who in each life. the names change, the roles change, the settings change, but the heart of it all, the people who have unintentionally trapped him here to witness their never-ending cycle? they never change.

and he isn’t allowed to leave, to abstain from watching as a silent judge. he must remain among them, must bear witness to all of the things humanity can do. must see the good and the bad, the ugly and the beautiful. for so long, he thinks there is no option but to watch, but.

this time around, he is late to the story, instead of being there long before it starts and well after everything ends. it has happened before, but it is not common. the reactions his arrival gets this time make him realize he can be more than the forced observer. for all the things he knows he must do, must be, there is nothing stopping him from nudging people this way or that, editing the finer details of a script only he can see. he cannot tell them, most certainly not directly, but he has seen the face of humanity’s creativity, thinks he understands how to harness it for himself. after all, he has so many lifetimes of history, written and hidden in places these people he watches will never be able to reach.

he will wait until the right time in the story, a time when he thinks it will not cause more harm than good. if he will try to nudge them onto an easier, better path, than he will do it the best he can. when finally he thinks the time is right, it is only the work of a day to retrieve a history he thinks might tell them some of what he cannot, teach them the ways they can change the story. each has a title, and looking at the possibilities of the future, he picks carefully.

he is too late to save two of them, is unsure he can even help the others, but any earlier and he thinks he would have hurt them when he only wants to help. and so, The Village That Went Mad. murder, death, the loss of a father figure to someone who had already lost so much, a woman who did what she must in ways no one else would. a man who lost everything, and then his life. a ruler killed for the pain he caused his citizens. he doesn’t point them out, but he tries to lead them to the parallels between this life and that one, even if he can’t say it in the simple terms he wants to. he does not know if it makes a difference, but he wants to believe it will.

the story continues. he lets himself be closer to them than he has been in any of their lives before, but could never predict the way two of them grab onto him and hold tight, refusing to let him go. it’s nice, even if he knows they will not remember it when everything restarts. even if it wasn’t in the story, has never happened before, it is not the sort of action that makes his limbs seize up and doesn’t let him move. so, he reasons to no one but himself, it must be okay, by whatever laws it is that dictate this land he oversees alone.

he continues his action as the script unfolds, nudging and poking and trying to guide them, because all it takes is one of them changing course by a fraction of a degree to change everything. he cannot be the one to change the script, but he can give these people the tools to do it themselves, even if he cannot tell them plainly. and his actions pay off. compared to previous cycles, it is one of the better endings, and he knows from comparisons he draws to his written memories that he had a hand in it. It’s easy to be proud of what he’s done, when the actions he took for the people he watches over are some of the only actions he thinks he’s ever chosen for himself.

soon enough, he finds out he was right. being closer to the humans he is supposed to watch and observe only makes it painful when they come back and he sees no recognition in their eyes, souls behind them familiar where their faces are not. he does not hesitate this time, and he tells a story of a grand war, of a corrupted politician and the man he drove to insanity, of the two children who bore the weight of a world on their shoulders, and it doesn't feel familiar to any of them. they don't remember it. he knew they wouldn't, but, well. he'd hoped regardless.

even now, letting himself be closer to them, he watches, he observes, and he does not change anything himself. he writes everything down, promises to remember the little things too.

Karl did not create this world, did not choose this role, but he will see it to the end, as long as that takes. forever may be a long time, but what does it really mean to someone with nothing to do but this? but to watch a microcosm of humanity bubble over again and again with violence and creation, with healing and pain? nothing at all. and so he sits among the people he’s known through uncountable lives, and watches the sun rise and fall over another story he already knows the ending of, but this time knows he’s a part of.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in like 6 hours, and edited it in 20 minutes. I can't really say I ever thought I'd be writing over a thousand words about c!Karl, but here we are. Shout out to the discord for egging me on, you guys know who you are.


End file.
